Orders, Decorations and Medals

A rare Australian Nurse’s Boer War group awarded to Nursing Sister Isabel Ivey, from Melbourne, Victoria, mentioned in despatches for South Africa

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, no clasp (Nursing Sister Isabel Ivey) naming privately engraved over the original impressed naming which is still discernable as ‘Nurse Isabel Ivey’, clearly she took offence at the medal being named Nurse rather than Nursing Sister; King’s South Africa 1901-02, no clasp (Nursing Sister I. Ivey) officially impressed naming; together with Melbourne Hospital nursing badge in 15 carat gold and enamels, the reverse inscribed ‘Isabel Ivey’; Royal Victoria Territorial Nursing Association badge in 15 carat gold and enamels; and Royal British Nurses’ Association bronze medal, the reverse inscribed ‘Isabel S. Ivey. 3859’, edge bruise to the second, otherwise good very fine and excessively rare (5) £600-800

See Colour Plate V

Only 29 Q.S.A. medals to Australian Nurses (14 New South Wales, 10 Victoria, and 5 South Australia) and only eight K.S.A. medals. The war in South Africa was the first occasion that Australian nurses served overseas.

Nursing Sister Isabel Ivey was one of ten Nursing Sisters from Victoria who accompanied the Third (Bushmen’s) Contingent to South Africa in March 1900. She was mentioned in Lord Kitchener’s despatch of 26th June 1902 (London Gazette 29 July 1902).